Amon Sûl
Type: Ruins *Inhabitants: Orcs, Undead, Rangers of the North *Population: 0 *Origin:Originally built by Elendil the Tall in the Second Age. *Purpose: Repository for a Palantir; later served as a landmark at the juncture of the three Kingdoms of the North. From this vantage point, one has an excellent view of the Great East Road as it heads towards Rhudaur. For this reason, the hill served as a strategic focus for western Arthedain and Cardolan and has along history of conflict surrounding it. The tower of Amon Sûl once held a Palantir, which was removed to Fornost following the invasion by Angmar in T.A. 1409. History: In the beginning of the days of the sun, the people known as the Edain, following a path taken ages before by the fathers of the Elves, dared the passes of the Misty Mountains and entered the vast basin of Eriador. They picked their way through the broken foothills west of the mountains and crossed the valleys of two dangerous, tumbling rivers. Beyond the river vales, they found a flat, stony, near-barren prairie. On the horizon, their hunters spied a great conical hill, standing tall against the storms that passed over from the west, giving them hope of a more inviting realm beyond the dry plain. The Edain found forests and green pastures beyond the promontory and settled there for a time. The peak that loomed over the plains of Eriador was rocky, dry, and windswept. Only a few trees and shrubs gripped its flank, primarily in dells and ravines where rainwater collected or seeped out from its porous limestone heart as small springs. No Men would dwell on the hill, but a circle of standing stones, called "Bereg's Watch," was set at its peak and a high granite platform was built so theSages of the Edain could look upon the lands and call to the spirits of the winds to bring them rain and peace. In the end, the restless Edain traveled onward to Beleriand to meet their destiny fighting in the wars between Morgoth and the Noldor. Southerner clans migrated from the foothills of the White Mountains and settled various parts of Eriador. These southerners feared the gods they worshiped; they believed that the great hill was the home to a spirit of storms. They called it Storm Hill, and later Weathertop. They believed that the entire world could be seen from the promontory's peak, but that an evil fate would come to anyone who climbed it. For most of the Second Age a few wandering shepherds and Elves were the only inhabitants of the Weather Hills, the long line of lesser peaks and ridges that stretched northwest from Weathertop. In S.A. 1693 the stones of Bereg's Watch were toppled by the invading armies of the Dark Lord, leaving the hill country more desolate and Weathertop more eerie than before. The ancient races evolved into the Eriadain, the Eriadorans, and the Brerion (who became the Bree-folk). In the wake of Sauron's invasion, the latter people moved north into the fertile pocket of land west of the Weather Hills, but they felt no love for the hill country itself. In later centuries, Númenoreans arrived, religious refugees who dwelt for a time atop the ancient hills, but eventually moved to other havens of their peoples to the northwest and south. This indifference changed at the end of the Second Age. Elendil the Tall had decided to build the Great East Road, the Menatar Romen, along the well worn trail that the old Edain used many millennia past. To secure this vital path of trade and communications, he erected a mighty watchtower upon Weathertop, incorporating in it the stones left by the ancient fathers of his race. The Elendili knew Weathertop by its Sindarin name, Amon Sul, the "Hill of Winds," and the Weather Hills were called the Emyn Sul, the "Wind Hills." The Tower of Amon Sûl, S.A 3320 - T.A 1409 The tower of Amon Sûl, isolated and far from any dangerous frontier, became a haven for astrologers and other mystics. The Palantír that Elendil placed in the tower fulfilled the claim of the ancient migrants, because it was used to watch over the whole of the kingdom of Arnor and much of the world beyond. From the tower, the High King witnessed the arrival of Gil-galad's army in the time of the Last Alliance. Not incidentally, the mighty spire, whose light could be seen some hundred miles away on the Menatar Romen, also served to intimidate the Eriadorans who had so recently accepted Elendil's rule. Outer walls, gardens and orchards, and a dry moat were added to the complex, and a secret escape passage was built leading almost four miles northwest to a hidden cave at the foot of a lesser hill. It was by this route that the Palantír was smuggled out in T.A. 1409. No town ever sprang up around the barren base of Amon Sûl, although a village was established on the northwest approach to allow visitors and horses to rest and carts to be repaired for the long haul up to the fortress. Springs from Weathertop supplied water to the village and to the source-streams of the Nen-i-Sûl on the opposite side of the citadel. Even the skills of the Dúnedain could not make the Emyn Sûl flower. Since water was easily obtained around the hills and downs, the grassy pastures were given over to the grazing of sheep and cattle. In a few fertile valleys and basins—between and below the ridges—grain and vegetables were cultivated. Three noble families shared the governance of the Emyn Sûl; Amon Sûl itself always remained a personal fief of the King. When Arnor was divided in T.A. 861, Amlaith of Arthedain, the eldest heir of the House of Elendil, gained the possession of Amon Sûl. The nobles of the Emyn Sûl swore loyalty to his kingdom of Arthedain, while those of the Lone lands to the east and south cast their lot with Rhudaur and Cardolan. Amon Sûl gained the year round presence of a Warden of Arthedain. Formerly a retreat for seers, the tower now had to function as a fortress: located at the junction of the three sister realms, all three Kings desired it and the Palantír it guarded. Visible southeast of the hill, beyond where the Nen-i-Sûl passed under the Menatar Romen through a culvert, stood a pillar called the Seroneldeon Tarma (Q. "Threefriends' Pillar") marking the junction of the divided Dúnadan kingdoms. The forces of Angmar pulled it down in 1409, but left the broken stone lying within sight of the road. By then it had already acquired its permanent nickname; the merchants who braved the dangers of the Menatar Romen in those dangerous years called it the "Three-fools' Stone." In the mid-fourteenth century, Rhudaur fell under the influence of the Witch-king of Angmar; Argeleb I of Arthedain then claimed the rulership of all the Dúnedain of Rhudaur, and belied his own claims by fortifying the flanks of the Emyn Sûl, once the peaceful heart of Arnor, against the threat from the east. In T.A. 1356 the Rhudaurians—insulted by the construction, goaded and aided by Angmar—attacked with all the force they could muster. Argeleb died in a sally on the northern flank of Weathertop, but his son, Arveleg II, defeated the invaders and completed the defense works. Arthedain and Angmar lay closest together far north of Weathertop, along the Northwall, and in the long wars between the two realms that land was the common battlefield. However, the Hillmen of Rhudaur who had taken the rule of Rhudaur were still dangerous; the Lone Lands were abandoned, and the Emyn Sûl were never again a safe pasture for the Elendili. Fifty years after the fall of Rhudaur, the Witch-king dropped all pretense of negotiation and made his first great effort to exterminate the Dúnedain. In the winter of T.A. 1408-1409, the Lord of the Nazgûl secretly moved his forces south into the Angle of Rhudaur and stripped the land of its harvest and herds. The great rivers froze seemingly at his command, and the greatest army seen in Eriador in a thousand years marched west to besiege Weathertop. The Witch-king's magic broke the gates of Amon Sûl; he drove an Arthadan-Cardolandren army westward, slaying both nations' Kings and overrunning the Emyn Sûl and eastern Arthedain. The Witch-king schemed to cruelly erase the memory of the Elendili from the lands he'd stolen. His Orcs burned and leveled the fortress of Amon Sûl for one day, and every other tower and village along the East Road for the next. Children and women mostly escaped, but with bitter scars of mind, the livestock that failed to flee were butchered, and the gardens that were still maintained were trampled. When the armies of Cirdan the Shipwright and the new King Araphor of Arthedain drove out the Angmarean forces, little remained for the Dúnedain to reclaim. Araphor reorganized the remnants of the Arthedain in the aftermath of the war and consolidated his rule of the mined lands. In T.A. 1412, Durlin of the Water, the last surviving male relative of the three families that had ruled the Emyn Sûl, was raised to the rank of Arnaroquen and given a fief encompassing all southeastern Arthedain. His grandson, Raimaro, still governed in Oiomiril in T.A. 1640. T.A 1643: The Weather Hills mark roughly the midpoint of the great basin of Eriador. They run some ninety miles northwest to southeast. The southernmost and highest peak is Weathertop, which stands nearly a thousand feet above the plains. There is still sufficient grass on the hills for grazing sheep; small patches of woodland grow in the vales and catch-basins around the ruins of abandoned farms. Gypsum, flint, and onyx are found in the clefts and rock falls of the hills in small quantities; the remaining inhabitants still work a few small mines. Most dwell near the keep of Minas Galanna and the village of Occum on the Men Formen, well west of the hills. There are, however, scattered steadings among the Emyn Sûl wherever good water and farmland occur. Herdsmen and shepherds run their flocks over the rest of the country. The fiefs lord oversees the quarries and mines in the northern reaches. There remain less than a score of true Dúnedain in the entire fief of Oiomiril. The population of the vale of Minas Galanna and the majority of the people of Occum are Eriadoran commoners. The farm families of the hill country and Nan Turnath also stem from this heritage. The shepherds of the Emyn Sûl are primarily Dunnish, most of them rootless wanderers without homelands or clan ties. Weathertop in the late third Age: Places of Note: *Ranger Camp *Echad Sûl *Glumhallow *Halls beneath Weathertop *The Spring *Summit of Weathertop *southern summit *Weatherfoot *Weathertop Caves *Winding Path Characters: *Daughter of the Waters *Lúthanna *Thadred *Uglak References: *MERP:Arnor *MERP:Weathertop, the Tower of the Wind *LOTRO:The Lone Lands, Weathertop *Interplay:The Lord of the Rings Game I Category:Tower Category:Fortress Category:Ruin Category:Arthedain